As Asia experiences unprecedented economic growth, much of the region’s natural heritage is threatened by the rapid expansion of roads, railways, and other linear infrastructure development. Without proper safeguards, this expansion will further fragment vital habitats, impact biodiversity, and increase wildlife mortality.
In December of 2021, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) began to accumulate knowledge on sustainable linear infrastructure solutions. ADB asked CSF’s sustainable infrastructure experts Kim Bonine and Thaís Vilela to contribute a chapter entitled “Economic Benefits of Integrating Biodiversity Safeguards and Nature-Based Solution in Linear Infrastructure '' to be included in ADB’s final knowledge product.
In conjunction with this written contribution, the CSF team helped to support and present during ADB’s Nepal Roads Training Workshop: Training on Planning and Design of Smart Linear Infrastructure for Biodiversity Protection from April 25 – 27, 2022. This training was held both in-person and virtually, with CSF contributing as virtual speakers and partners.
When the final knowledge product is completed by ADB, it will be accessible here.
The CSF team continues to work closely with ADB to inform and advise smart infrastructure development across Asia. We are proud to be partners in this work to provide training, technical support, and to conduct and evaluate comprehensive economic cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of projects and policies to empower decision-makers to prioritize sustainable infrastructure growth.